|
Qatar says gives $30 mln to pay Gaza public sector workers
[Ynet] As Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, faces a budget shortfall and is unable to pay wages to its public sector workers, Qatar is stepping in to fill the wage gap; The funding is meant to '"alleviate suffering and financial distress.'Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... said it would give $30 million to help pay the salaries of thousands of Gazoo Strip public sector Hamas workers left without a full wage package since 2013 on Thursday . The donation was welcomed by Hamas, the Islamist group that dominates the enclave. They said it would help ease the wage shortages that have tested already strained relations with the US-backed Paleostinian Authority in the West Bank. There was no immediate comment from Paleostinian Authority or Israel, who have long been suspicious of Qatar's regular donations to Hamas and other Islamist groups across the region. The emir of the wealthy Gulf state, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said the payment of 113 million riyals was meant to "alleviate suffering and financial distress", according to Qatar's state news agency, QNA. A reconciliation pact signed in 2014 by the two sides raised hopes among Hamas that its 50,000 public sector employees' wages would be taken care of via the Paleostinian Authority (PA) payroll. But the Paleostinian Authority cannot afford to pay all the extra workers. International donors who support the PA budget, including the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , say they want an audit of workers and cutbacks to the bloated payroll, which costs more than $2 billion a year. The Hamas-hired public servants have grown restive and in 2014 protested over their lack of payment which is partly due to a continued blockade imposed on Gazoo by both Israel and Egypt. "The July payment will be made in full immediately once the Qatari financial fund is received," Hamas' deputy finance minister, Youssef al-Kayyali said. Qatar, which hosts the largest US air base in the Middle East, has for years preserved influence with Islamist forces across the region it believes are the long-term future. The breadth and resilience of Qatar's links to Islamist groups including Egypt's Moslem Brüderbund, which has suffered a crackdown in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, fuels suspicions in other Gulf states. Posted by: trailing wife 2016-07-23 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=462670 |